1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an IC card terminal unit and an IC card duplication method for generating a duplicate card (e.g. backup card) of an IC card capable of encrypting a key for encoding or decoding data generated inside by another key and taking out the data to an external unit.
2. Field of the Related Art
The so-called IC card containing an IC chip having a nonvolatile data memory and a CPU (Central Processing Unit) for controlling the memory has been recently used in various fields of industry as a portable storage medium.
The IC card of this type is issued by using an IC-card issuing machine generally set in a card issuing company or the like. The IC-card issuing machine generates instruction data necessary for operating an IC card, magnetic encoding data, and printing data by a host computer, successively transmits these data to an issuing machine, inputs the instruction data to the IC chip in the IC card, and magnetically records and prints the magnetic encoding data and printing data on the surface of the IC card.
The processing to be executed in accordance with the instruction data to the IC chip in the IC card is one of the most important processings to issue the IC card. The IC chip in the IC card is provided with means for outputting the information about whether transmitted personal data is normally processed and the issuing machine is provided with means for determining whether the instruction data is normally transmitted in accordance with the information output from the IC chip.
Moreover, the IC card stores a plurality of keys for securing a high security in a data memory to confirm the concealment and validity of data by using the keys.
Furthermore, to improve the security of a plurality of personal computers connected to a network, a method for using an IC card is developed and moreover, a method is used which confirms the concealment of an electronic data file and the validity of data by using keys stored in an IC card.
Furthermore, to secure a higher security, a method is used which prevents a plurality of keys from leaking to external units when they are set by generating the keys by the CPU in an IC card.
However, a conventional IC card system for generating the above keys in an IC card has a problem that if the IC card is broken or lost, an electronic data file cannot be used in which concealment and validity are confirmed b using the keys generated in the IC card.
Moreover, if the keys generated in the IC card can be easily taken out to a unit outside of the IC card, a problem occurs that security is extremely deteriorated.
Therefore, the IC-card backup method disclosed in the official gazette of Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 2000-268137 is recently considered. The IC-card backup method is an art for reissuing an IC card by duplicating the card information including the identification information for identifying a normal IC card from the normal IC card to a spare IC card, changing the above identification information to the content for using the spare IC card as the normal IC card according to necessity, and changing the spare IC card to the normal IC card.
However, the IC-card backup method does not duplicate a completely same IC card. Therefore, even by using the reissued IC card, it is impossible to solve the above-described problems.